The description is awesome. Such a shot would definitely make my day! :-)

But given one's taste and skills evolve in time and that the bar is raised every time the planets are aligned, how can there be more than one God Shot for each individual? To have 30 or 40 of those shots engraved in your memory, you have to consider them of equal greatness.

I guess what I'm saying is, just as your experience of a God Shot have changed, the number of God Shots you remember will go down in the future.

Is it better to have a shot so delicious that it raises the bar and have the 30-40 shots become great shots instead of God shots? Or is it better to never raise the bar so that those 30-40 shots remain memorable? :-)

The ultimate God Shot will stand alone and my goal is to have one God Shot to brag about :-)

Mark, thanks for the article. I agree with your working definition of "the God Shot" and the comment by karl Rice. Trying to at least duplicate ones previously "best" shot and striving to improve on that standard is what makes espresso the ultimate (at least coffee) drink. I've redefined my "God Shot". So I guess my count is ~1 God Shot.

Posted Wed Nov 13, 2002, 11:15am Subject: It is the journey, not the destination...

I have to say that my personal experience in life... relationships, martial arts, meditation, sports, programming, cooking, etc... it is the process that counts.

The seeking of perfection, the intense personal search for improvement and the desire to do better next time. Hence the floating goal of the God Shot. I've experienced many times in my various pursuits an amazing revelation, or momentary touch of 'perfection' that motivates me to work harder to reproduce it. That perception of perfection changes as we learn more and more, but it is ultimately the driving reason we continue.

Love the article, and I agree that God shots have a floating bar attached.

There amy also be technology involved. I had a shot at Intelligentsia recently that got me thinking that espresso quality for the industry as a whole may be an evolving thing.

The bar was really busy, and the LM FB-70 was humming. The shot was 100% crema that was stable! It didn't quite separate and had the mouthfeel of microfoam. It was lighter (if a triple ristretto can be called that), but also more oily and adhesive than a regular espresso.

It may or may not be the next step in espresso evolution, but it sure was memorable!

In any case, it is possible to create an espresso where the crema is the equivalent of microfroth, melded with the liquid. I've had one. Has anyone else seen it?

I just had the most hideous cuppa (latte) machiatto from one of my favorite local places and I knew from watching how bad it was going to be... scalded milk w/o noticeable foam and MASSIVELY overextracted espresso.

I NEED to just do this myself all the time again (my current job has stale old rancid GROUND coffee delivered MAYBE once a month and no espresso machine). <sigh>

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